


Diaries through the ages

by Tricsha



Series: The Xantha's pensieve [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery (Video Game)
Genre: Book 3: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Book 4: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Christmas, Gen, New Years, Slice of Life, Spoiler tags in the notes, diaries
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-23
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2020-10-26 16:29:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 2,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20745242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tricsha/pseuds/Tricsha
Summary: "A diary is a record (originally in handwritten format) with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period" -Wikipedia-Extracts from diaries written over the years telling stories from the wizarding world (and possibly the muggle world).





	1. Mariko

**Author's Note:**

> Potentialy spoilery references to Hogwarts Mysteries. Not much that would ruin the suspense of the game though.

Mariko’s Diary

23 September 1977

The ice is getting worse every day now. It is still September but both Edmund and I agree on that it feels like November at times, even here in the Ravenclaw Tower far away from the ice with a fire always burning in the fireplace.. We all carry mittens and knitted hats in our bags these days to keep the cold away when passing through certain parts of the castle. They have of course closed off the most ice filled corridors but that does not do much to keep the cold away.

There are whispers about Jacob Wilson being the one at fault and I would honestly not be surprised if there is some truth in that. He has always been an odd person but especially after the incident with Duncan Ashe. It is almost as if Ashe suppressed all of Wilson’s bad sides and now that he is gone those sides bubble up and are trying to regain the lost time. The whole thing makes me shiver almost as much as the war does. The war, I wish it all could just come to an end. I barely have the energy to open the papers these days out of fear for what they might reveal. It is all death and destruction with no end in sight.

But there are small lights even when the world feels pitch black, and at the moment that light is the fact that the workload is lighter than at this point last year. What a Ravenclaw I am, feeling happy over having to learn less. But it is a relief after the large amount of homework last year. My cousins were right when they said that sixth year was worst.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edmund who is mentioned in passing in this chapter is written by my wonderful friend Shaon.


	2. Marielle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by the inktober prompt for today "Ring".

Marielle’s Diary

1 October 1956

Rings are an odd thing. They tell you so much yet they don’t tell you anything. Strangers will often look at the golden ring with jewels embedded that grand-mére wears and immediately think well off. But they won’t know that she spent so many years working as a seamstress to keep my mom and her siblings fed and clothed while grand-pére was away, that you can still feel the calluses in her fingertips if you know where they are. They don’t know that she is the daughter of a baker. That she raised seven children in a not too large flat that often was searched by the aurors who looked down on all of them for so many reasons. Bloodstatus, political belief or even just how little wealth they had. All those muggles see is a ring of gold on an old woman’s finger yet they think they know everything about her.

My mom doesn’t wear a ring anymore. She had a thin silver band when me and Pierre were young to keep the muggles from seeing the truth. That was when she still tried to be quite involved in the muggle world . It was in reality gift from her friend Marise, the woman I am named after. And mom knew the implication of wearing it on her ring finger. It meant married but to someone too poor to afford an engagement ring. Most likely someone who worked with manual labour. They were all wrong but like mom says from time to time, what harm does a little lie do if it keeps you out of trouble. Now they assume widow when they see her bare hand. That her husband was one of the many that didn’t return from the war. Either the one against Grindelwald or the one against Germany depending on if said stranger was magical or not.

I sometimes wonder what my ring says about me. The one in silver with a single branch of aconite flowers made of purple enamel that aunt Évelyne gave me when I turned 18. It is pretty but not expensive and clearly not an engagement ring. But I like it and feel that it suits me. 


	3. Esther

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based on something I wrote for a letterlarp.

Esther’s Diary

10 October 1925

I got a letter from maman today. Aurors searched our house, again. Tried to find clues about Grindelwald’s next big step as usual. Thankfully Éve was the only one of the young ones who was home at the time. Madame Caron had taken the rest of them to the beach to play. I always feel relief whenever they don’t have to watch strangers turn our house upside down. That confusion and dread is something I don’t even wish on Émeric when he is his worst behavior. I wish père could just quit all this. The war is not worth it.

Évelyne got a letter from père today. She wouldn’t tell me what it said but it must have upset her because she threw it in the fire after reading it. Their relation have soured almost completely by now and I fear that it is our bond that is next in line to break. The looks she gives me each time I receive a letter from père hurts. It is like she feels betrayed by me not adding them to the fire like she does but instead carefully close it and add it to the box where I store all my letter. I worry about what will happen next.


	4. Zenaida

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a quick look into the mind of a student after the arrival of Durmstrang and Beauxbaton.

Zenaida's diary

30 October 1994

The students from Durmstrang and Beauxbaton arrived today. Classes all ended early but we had History of magic so it didn't matter that much. Would have been worse if it had been charms or transfiguration. Both schools were being show offs when they arrived. Beauxbaton came in a flying carriage pulled by winged horses and Durmstrang had a ship that came up through the lake. Honestly. Most of the durmstrang students I spoke with where not all bad though. They all sat with us in Slytherin at the feast. The witch who sat next to me was called Katya Petrova. She is from Russia and knew quite a few fun jokes even if the point sometimes got lost in translation. Most seem to be betting on Krum to be picked as their champion but I heard the name Rosen mentioned once or twice. We shall see tomorrow night how it all turn out. I am just hoping that Hogwarts doesn’t get a complete arse as our champion, like Warrington.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not my best work, I'll admit that. But it was fun to look into the mind of this character.


	5. Edwin

Edwin’s diary 31

October 1993

He managed to break in. They have yet to tell us how but Sirius Black was here at Hogwarts, trying to get into the Gryffindor tower. We were all preparing to go to sleep after the feast when professor Flitwick came and informed us that we were not to sleep in the tower tonight and that we all had to come back down to the great hall. So here we are, lying on the floor of the great hall in purple sleeping bags. David and Sean are both already asleep, ruddy sleepyheads. One of the prefects ordered everyone to stop speaking about an hour ago just as the lights turned of so now I am just lying here, with the ghosts as the only lightsource. There are people whispering quietly all over the hall with the prefects trying to keep them quiet. One is on her way over here so I should probably stop writing and try to fall asleep however unlikely it is.


	6. Mariko

**** **** Mariko’s diary

1 November 1981

They say that it is finally over. That he is dead. That the terror I have known most of my life is no more. And yet I can’t feel happy. Relieved of course but not happy. Not with all the deaths that this war has left in its tracks. And how it ended with the death of two young people, only 21 years old, the same age as me that left behind a son not much younger than my Rachel.

I can’t shake of the feeling that it could have been me and Edmund. The Potters were in the same year as us. She was a muggleborn like Edmund and he a pureblood like me. I had classes with them from time to time, and their boy was born but a few months after my baby girl. She is sleeping in her crib right now, completely unaware of the horrors in the world. I hope it will stay that way for a long time.

Edmund is out celebrating with some friends from school, just a couple of pints at the Leaky Cauldron. They all tried to get me to join. Lewis said that he could get an house elf to watch over Rachel but I turned them down. I don’t have the energy to pretend to be happy and celebrating. I just want to sleep as I slowly accept that the nightmare we have been living in for so long is over. Now I will do just that, sleep and tomorrow a new life begins. A life where I can focus on my family and my plants and nothing else.


	7. Rosie

29 December 1979

Finally a calm moment. When Esther asked if Theo and I would be fine with her hosting Christmas for her family this year could we not have imagined the hurricane that is the French Xanthas. I have of course seen most of them when grandpa and grandma throws one of their massive parties but that is something very different compared to seeing everyone filling Esther’s flat to the brim. She has six siblings of which five are married with children. There is even two young grandchildren that are Évelyne and Marcus’. Tasha and Edwin have been extremely excited about having so many playmates at once.

It was fascinating to experience a French Christmas for once instead of our English one. I could have done without midnight mass though. I asked Esther about it given that she had barely been to church at all during the months we have lived with her. It is apparently her and her siblings’ way of honouring their late mother. Her faith was strong and thus they feel the most connected to her when in church.

Watching Ester and Éliane cook Christmas dinner was a sight to be seen. Everyone was banned from the kitchen under threat of being thrown all the way to onkle Victor if one dared to enter anyway. Theo laughed at it at first before being informed by Évelyne’s granddaughter that Émeric had once defied the ban, thinking that the threat was nothing but a simple joke. That was clearly not the case because Esther had apparently grabbed him and shoved him through the floo to Victor and Leon in Lübeck.

Tasha got a bear that Marielle made for her. A lovely little thing made of something dark brown that imitated fur. If one told it “dance mon amis, dance”, then it would start spinning around and make delicate movements. She have barely let go of it since. It is all very sweet.


	8. Mariko

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Many thanks to Shaon for being my beta this chapter. And of course for creating the character of Edmund.

1 January 1985

Another new years eve has come and passed. We were at Edmund's parents this year. Neither of us felt that we could turn down the invitation to their little party given that we spent new year with my family the last few years. Avoiding them would have been preferable but alas, what can one do, they are family after all. The party was all muggles of course. Business associates of Edmund's father and friends of the family. Thankfully a few of them had children of their own that they brought with them so Rachel was not terribly bored. Not that she would have been that bored with just Edna but the more children the better.

I wore a kimono, the blue one that mum gave me at christmas last year paired with a green obi. Got quite a few compliments from the other guests. Though some had the silent continuation of “for something like  _ that _ ” hanging in the air. Those things are so rare here that I in a way forget how much they hurt. And yet they all leave marks that hurt once more every time it happens again. Oh well, maybe they will one day learn the ignorance of their ways and how to change it. I am very thankful that Rachel takes after Edmund’s appearance more than mine, it will make life easier for her when dealing with muggles.

Spent most of the evening conversing with this lovely old lady that I was placed next to at the dinner. She and her husband built their empire together from the ground and now she is the sole head of the company. This is also a reminder to myself that I need to ask Edmund if he knows some of the muggle things she mentioned. They were certainly more than I know.

We got talking about the wars at some point. She lost two brothers in what the muggles call the First World War and her son just barely made it out of the second. That was a harsh reminder of how lucky we were in the war, we didn’t lose anyone close even if it was close at times. Hannah and Lewis came the closest of all of us. My face must have betrayed my thoughts because she asked me if everything was alright and said that she hoped that she hadn't upset me with her talk about the wars. I quickly assured her that it was not the case but that it reminded me of some friends that I almost lost to an IRA attack a while back. That is whom the muggles blame  _ his  _ attacks on when they are noticed. I have yet to figure out who they actually are but this far have they been a good explanation to things.

Here is to a new year, hopefully as good as the last.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy 2020 everyone. I wish you all a year better or as good as the last.

**Author's Note:**

> Thoughts on this? Is it good? Is it bad?


End file.
